MSI (Micro-Star International)

Founded in 1986 on the outskirts of Taipei, it made its name on motherboards, where it has spent decades fighting ASUS and Gigabyte for the same enthusiasts. Graphics cards built on Nvidia and AMD chips, plus heavy gaming laptops, came later and became the public face of the brand.

In April 2023 MSI was hit by the Money Message ransomware gang, which leaked source code and private signing keys — including Intel Boot Guard keys for some platforms. Boot Guard exists to ensure only signed UEFI firmware boots. Once the key is out, that guarantee can't be revoked after the fact, because it is fused into the hardware.